Chicago’s Theresa’s Lounge has been closed for some four decades now, having shuttered back in 1985, but the club still very much lives on in the hearts and memories of those who got their starts playing there, learning from the likes of such legends as Junior Wells, Willie Dixon, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, James Cotton, Otis Rush, and many others. After beginning his career playing for tips on Maxwell Street and then getting his first gig at Theresa’s Lounge in the 1970s, guitarist John Primer was one of those next generation bluesmen who honed his chops at the renowned establishment during its three decades operating, and, on the new Tribute to Theresa’s Lounge (Blues House Productions), has invited a few old friends who also came up in the club to join him in remembering and paying tribute to it, including such now-greats as Billy Branch, Willie Buck, and Bob Stroger, to name just a few.
While some of those friends join Primer for just one song, with, for example, Willie Buck on vocals for just Muddy Waters’ “Champagne and Reefer” and Mary Lane–the only regular woman singer at Theresa’s–providing the sweet-vocaled yet pointed lyrics of “Mary’s Song”, many others can be heard on multiple tracks throughout the album: Billy Branch joins on vocals and harmonica for a jaunty “Sugar Sweet” and then on harmonica for three other songs, including “Champagne and Reefer,” one of seven tracks on which Bob Stroger plays bass, while Carlos Johnson and John Watkins are also each featured on lead vocals and guitar for one song in addition to each playing guitar alongside Primer on at least other four tracks. Rounding out the band, Harmonica Hinds plays on the tracks that don’t include Branch, with Twist Turner and Tony Mangiullo splitting drum duties across the album and Jeff Brinkman covering bass on the half-dozen songs without Stroger.
Along with almost a handful of Primer originals, many of the songs here are ones you would have heard at Theresa’s, with the album kicking off, for example, on the same note as Junior Wells used to start his set at the club in the uptempo, shuffling “Messin’ with the Kid”-like “Up in Heah”. With such lyrics as “the music sound good, and the punch is spiked, they’re gonna give a party up in heah tonight”, paired with some terrific guitar and harmonica, you really couldn’t ask for a better way to get things going, with “Mean Old World” closing out the baker’s dozen of tracks in honor of Sammy Lawhorn having sung the song every night at the club.
In between, you’ll also hear another Junior Wells-associated tune in “Little by Little”; several numbers you would have heard from Muddy Waters in a “She’s Nineteen Years Old” that features Carlos Johnson (whose voice sounds a lot like that of actor Wendell Pierce of The Wire, Treme, and Jack Ryan fame) on vocals as well as guitar, and the aforementioned “Sugar Sweet” and “Champagne and Reefer”; a galloping “Cut You a-Loose” (Otis Rush, Luther Allison), and the John Watkins-penned “Here I Am Knockin’ at Your Door Again”, which Primer asked Watkins to sing here in remembrance of James Cotton having sung the tune at Theresa’s.
Of the originals, a strutting “7 Nights for 7 Years” that recounts Primer’s experience paying his dues (“for 7 nights a week, 7 long years, I had to work from 9 to 1”) at Theresa’s and a crawling “Blues Survivalist” about how Primer continues to do his part to help make sure the blues carries on nicely document the bookends of Primer’s long career in the blues, with a slow, swaying “The Blues is King” (“the blues have the power, blues have its own thing/ blues will always be around, always be the king”) and grooving “We All Need Help” inspired by the generosity and kindness of the club’s founder Theresa Needham (to whom the album is also dedicated) also included in the mix.
The album is, of course, loaded with great guitar, including plenty of rich slide work–not to mention harmonica and other instrumentation–throughout, and one that’s very much worth adding to your collection!